Before I start - don't forget to stretch ALL your leg muscles after a run. I forgot to do my quads last time and MAN were they stiff as a board yesterday!

My legs this morning at 6.30am however, were in superb fettle. I put the rubbish out (as you do) then set Endomondo to "GO" mode and off I went. Decided to leave my water bottle at home this run, as I tend to get a bit of a stiff shoulder depending on which hand is holding the confounded thing. "Let's hope I don't need a swig half way round my route eh?" I thought......

It was particularly chilly this morning, but I felt great. I had a spring in my step and I thought to myself "Can I beat my own personal world record personal best time of 27'28sec?". I felt confident. Quietly confident. But I was still on my warm up walk so I hoped I could smash that mother of a time and go home strutting like a proud peacock on steroids!!.

First K was good. I had NO music, NO gardeners question time podcast, no weird science podcast - NADA. Just me, my senses and my legs grinding forward. Second K was good too. Third K also pretty damned fine. I didn't miss my water bottle at all, especially as I hardly EVER take a swig from it whilst running. It's more of a crutch really - just in case I fall to the ground helplessly, like some cowboy in a Western, walking across the desert gasping for a drink of cold water.......SORRY! I digress. Fourth K, I started to get a niggle in my right groin! "Oh nooooo!" I thought. "Last week it was my left groin that got strained, now it's my right." Should I stop? No, it wasn't THAT bad. I persevered and kept pushing on. Across the park now, and heading towards the Thames and Richmond Lock. I sneakily rubbed my tingly groin hoping that would alleviate some of the discomfort, and then got hideously embarrassed when a female jogger passed me and looked at me like I was some sort of pervert.

I reached Richmond Lock. Up the steps I went, feeling pretty tired now. Thought I'd give my groin a quick rub again but DAMN IT, someone was coming down the steps as I was going up. "Bloody hell!" I thought. I carried on. Down the other side of the Thames and headed for home along the Thames path. "Fifth K should be at the end of this bit" I said to myself. I reached the road and kept jogging, but pulled my phone out of my shorts to see how far I'd run......ONLY BLOODY 4.1K!!! "Damn" I said. "I've got to keep going. I wanna smash this personal world record best world record personal time of mine!"

I plodded on and kept looking at my phone. 4.3K......4.5K......4.8K....nearly there......5K! STOP RUNNING DAN! My new groin niggle had calmed down and I headed home around the block to make up a 5 minute walk. Got home and stretched accordingly. All niggles and pains vacated my body and I felt absolutely fine -Thank the Good Lord!

I had one last thing to do. Look at my time. Did I make it? Did I smash it? Did I just tear up my previous best time and smother it with a new shiny unbelievable PB??

No.

"Blast!" I said to myself. "Damn and blast!" However it wasn't all bad. I did it in 30'25sec. I figured if I hadn't had to wait for traffic to cross a road, had leapt up those steps at Richmond Lock, had flown down the other side, had not slowed down for groin reasons I would have got inside 30 minutes.

SQ you are toooooo kind! I have never written a book.....but I have written a screenplay (it never got made though - that's the movie biz for you!). But having spent over 30 years as an editor on films, I guess the storytelling aspect of my job has invaded my posts!!! Hahah!

Well you definitely have a talent for writing, I'm sure many others on here will agree with that too. Third best time with a recent injury is brilliant - so many people on here inspire me when I read their posts and then I get out there and just manage to plod along at the same time and distance as before. Still, better than just sitting on the couch I guess.

I'm still going round Draycote but after trying B210K and pulling a muscle in my calf which stopped me running for nearly a week, I've decided to just stick with going back to running for 30 minutes (for me that's nowhere near 5K unfortunately). Feel a bit demoralised when I read everyone else's progress on here as I'm not making any, but trying to just be happy with running 30 minutes for now.

I tried the Stamina podcast once and it nearly killed me! I'll stick to 30 minutes for a couple of weeks and then maybe try the B210K again. Are you just doing the Stamina podcast or all three Couch to 5K+?

I wish I'd done that, I think it might have helped. I went straight onto trying to do the Stepping Stones and Speed which I found fine, but I think getting comfortable with running 30 minutes in my own time first would have been a better idea. Stamina was definitely way too big a step for me!

No SQ not a book a Podcast with all his runs then we can listen to our Dan while he leaps up and down steps, swigs from the water bottle he left at home and rubs his . . . . . . . enough said Good read, good run, that's our Dan the Running Man